When you have a movie that is little more than an hour long, involves mysterious disappearances, multiple law enforcement agencies, secrets hidden in the past, supernatural killings, and hunting a monster in the woods, it takes a specific lack of skill to make that a struggle to sit through, and, ultimately, not worth the limited effort. That it was made for an uber-low budget (one would hope they didn't spend much money on this) can be a real challenge for the ambitious but it is not a guarantee of failure. That has to be brought to the equation and in this case the fault lies with the writer/director. Watching the actors struggle valiantly to be believable, and natural, only to fail dismally was a perfect example of how the director failed them. First, by using a vapid, mess of a screenplay. One can see the moments where they thought there were bits of clever happening - and I appreciated the efforts even as each and every instance fell resoundingly flat. But no one had any real life or seemed grounded in their situations. Actors repeatedly walked in the frame and said their lines. They did not act as if they were engaged in any other action, even sitting around a dining table or hunters out hunting in the woods. They felt divorced from their surroundings as if the director thought the only important thing was saying the lines - not believing them. And the numerous ridiculous or questionable choices made in telling this story; setting up a dramatic Q&A with a person we have been led to believe might be crazy, and then literally have everyone just standing there (not even necessarily looking at each other) while the character rambles dramatically - and then not use the dialogue; instead having the most cardboard actor TELL US what the man is saying in a voiceover! And later the FBI will return to this man and let him take over the investigation, telling them what they should be doing and even what guns to use. And why the heck is the FBI involved in a local missing persons case in the first place? What is the jurisdictional issue involved here? I came away suspecting he was an FBI agent because the director had access to an FBI jacket and that is not a cool enough prop to build your weak screenplay around. And when you have to stick earplugs in everyone's ears to justify that they can't hear killings be done right behind them... you are straining. And the plot points mentioning mysterious music which we never hear? There is no consistency in how deadly the Creature is, or how it behaves, or any of the supernatural elements - pretty sure they were just being made up as they went along.
I have spent time writing this up because I suspect the filmmakers didn't realize all the ways they were wasting a perfectly decent opportunity to make a good film. It has some lovely scenery even if nothing is photographed in an involving or interesting fashion; most shots are static, as characters walk into frame and say their lines and then we cut.
A good test for wannabe filmmakers would be to watch this movie and if you can't see why it's not working, then you shouldn't try and make films.
Pretty scenery though. Nice beach shot. But don't expect anything more than that.
